Friends of Gondwana Rainforest

Friends of Gondwana Rainforest is a Registered Charity in the UK, set up at the beginning of 2011 to highlight the plight of the remnant rainforests of the ancient continent of Gondwana. While most people are aware of the on-going devastation of tropical rainforests, the even more serious situation of subtropical and temperate rainforests has escaped attention. These, the last refuges of an extraordinary number of endemic species of plants and animals, are now so reduced in extent that they cannot defend themselves against encroaching alien species, or fire, or human activity, or climate change. Their total area is a tiny fraction of that covered by tropical rainforest, no more than one-fifth of one-percent of the world’s total land surface, but they are precious.

The surviving pockets of Gondwanan vegetation are all different, each the result of its own idiosyncratic evolution. If this extraordinary biodiversity is to be preserved, a network of small reserves will have to be created. Friends of Gondwana Rainforest not only seeks to inspire private holders of Gondwanan fragments to conserve and protect them, but also to provide practical help. In the Chatham Islands, private landowners have managed to reverse the devastation of native vegetation. In Chile, a network of 133 private protected areas (RAPP) accounts for nearly 4,000 square kilometers of land. In Australia, as in other parts of Gondwana, it is assumed that rare plants on private property are doomed. This mindset is part of what we want to change.

Friends of Gondwana Rainforest can help landowners to identify the members of their individual communities, to remove permanently weeds and alien species, to propagate their native plants, and rehabilitating the forest. We hope this website will help like-minded individuals and organisations to find each other as well as providing a database of images and information.